WORKS OF GARRETT ECKBO

Presented by
KEERTHANA.N
• Garrett Eckbo (November 28, 1910 – May 14, 2000) was
an American landscape Architect
• Notable for his seminal book Landscape for Living.
• His seminal 1950 book Landscape for Living essentially defined Modern
landscape architecture.
• Eckbo was a leader of the modern landscape movement, creating
gardens the New York Times once called "the horticultural equivalents of
the architecture and furniture of Charles and Ray Eames.“
• Eckbo designed outdoor spaces for the very poor as well as the very rich.
• His projects ranged from the grounds for a Central Valley housing project
for migrant farm workers to gardens.
• He encountered the modern movement and studied under professors
such as Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus.
• The Bauhaus influence on Eckbo was profound, reflected in the
asymmetrical geometry of his landscape designs.
 DENVER BOTANIC GARDENS, United States
• It is a neoclassical and Japanese style of landscape
architecture.
• Originally located on 100 acres in City Park, by late
1958 the gardens were moved to a more protected,
fenced property on York Street between 9th and
11th Streets on top of an old cemetery.
• Garrett Eckbo, in collaboration with Eckbo, Dean,
Austin and Williams, developed the master plan in
1969.
• The Denver Botanic Gardens were one of the first to
practice water conservation, biological pest
management, and the cultivation of native plant
species.
• The rectilinear 23-acre site is divided into 43 unique
gardens connected by wide straight paths.
• Narrower meandering paths wind through the
distinct gardens, which include a Japanese Garden, a
South African garden, rose and lilac gardens, and
numerous spaces dedicated to diverse native
ecologies and cultures of US.
• There is also an orangery and a large lawn
amphitheater formed by tilting planes of close-
cropped grass.
• A signature feature of the gardens is the modernist
Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservancy designed
by Denver architects opened in 1966.
• Its plexi-glass and arcing interlaced concrete dome
houses tropical and subtropical plants.
 UNION BANK SQUARE, United States
• Union bank square is a modernist style of landscape
architecture.
• This three-acre paved plaza is situated three stories above
the street level and was designed by Garrett Eckbo in
1968.
• The plaza was intended to be experienced by pedestrians
and to be viewed from above by Union Bank employees.
• With multiple points of access that include a pedestrian
bridge from the neighboring Hotel, a monumental
staircase and elevator at Fifth Street, and discrete
staircases near the freeway, the plaza is accessible from
the surrounding neighborhood.
• The plaza’s biomorphic and organic forms with a
series of sculpted grass islands surrounded by
water and linked by a central bridge.
• The water is essentially still with the exception of
two small jets. Framing and drawing attention to
the fountain are a grove of trees planted on a grid,
which corresponds to the structural columns
below.
• The regimented arrangement of the trees
transitions from circular concrete planter boxes in
the paved center to lawn areas around the
perimeter.